Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Review: Benefit ChaChat Tint & Sun Beam

You may have seen that this month's InStyle magazine comes with a pretty awesome freebie, a choice of three of Benefit's liquid pigments; 'Benetint', 'ChaCha Tint', and 'Sun Beam'. I couldn't resist and in fact ended up buying the magazine twice, so today I'm reviewing ChaCha Tint and Sun Beam. Miniature versions of the full-size products (each sample is 4ml, compared to 14ml full-size), these come packaged in pretty boxes which open to reveal shiny, nail polish-style bottles with screw-cap lids.

The lids unscrew to reveal small, precise brushes which can be used to apply the pigment. Benefit recommend dotting onto the cheeks or lips before blending in with the fingers. The photos below show each pigment swatched on the back of my hand; as you can see, 'Sun Beam' is a pretty golden-bronze colour with plenty of shimmer, whilst 'ChaCha Tint' is a mango/coral coloured cream.

'Sun Beam' blends out really nicely to give a subtle, golden shimmer to the skin. It'd be perfect with a tan in the summer but I'm not so sure how well it'll work through the colder months. 'ChaCha Tint' is harder to blend as it very quickly stains the skin - you need to work fast with this! If using on the cheeks, I'd recommend doing one cheek at a time. As you can see below, in the time it took me to snap a couple of photos, an obvious dark patch has stained the back of my hand. I also found that my fingers became slightly stained whilst blending it in. However, it does give a lovely soft coral/pink glow to the skin, which is easily buildable depending on your skintone and the situation.

These last couple of photos show 'ChaCha Tint' on my cheek and lips - it's a natural-looking shade which gives a really pretty glow. It's not drying on the lips and lasts quite well - five or six hours on the lips before it's completely faded, and all day on the cheeks.

With 'Sun Beam' being priced at £18.50 for 14ml, and 'ChaCha Tint' at £24.50 for 12.5ml, these aren't the cheapest of products, although you don't need much for a good colour pay-off. I think 'Sun Beam' is reasonably priced given how pretty and easy to work with it is, but for the price of 'ChaCha Tint' I'd like it to be a little easier to use - I don't feel it's that unusual or special a product. ('Benetint' is also £24.50 for 12.5ml).
Benefit products are available through their website or from Boots, Debenhams and House of Fraser.
Have you picked up any of these tints with this month's InStyle? Which is your favourite?

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